Reform should prohibit selling land to foreigners - Agriculture Ministry
2011-02-24 18:25:05
Land reform should forbid selling land to foreign companies and individuals, Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Mykola Prysiazhniuk said during a meeting of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Agrarian Policy and Land Relations.
"I discussed the matter with the president, and he shares this position. I do not mind renting, but so that a Ukrainian or foreign tenant would do everything to preserve fertility of the land and fulfill obligations on loading the land under natural climatic conditions. Our objective is to increase the volume of agricultural production. We should not leave the Ukrainian peasant without land," Mykola Prysiazhniuk said.
Along with the laws that relate to the market of agricultural land, this year it is also needed to adopt a law on agriculture in Ukraine and on food security, Mykola Prysiazhniuk said.
Earlier, the President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, said that the market of agricultural land should operate in Ukraine since 2012.
In all, Ukraine has more than 60 million hectares of land, including 41.8 million hectares of arable land, of which 33 million hectares are plowed.
A moratorium on the sale of farmland is effective in Ukraine now.